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Law enforcement officers across the state of Missouri will be cracking down on drunk driving during the Fourth of July weekend, July 3-5. The Hazelwood Police Department will be joining this effort to help keep local roadways safe for people traveling around town to see parade events and watch firework displays.

“It’s never worth the risk to drive while under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Drivers could
lose their license, pay large fines, or worst of all, cause a tragic loss of life,” said Hazelwood
Police Chief Carl Wolf.

According to The Century Council’s annual “State of Drunk Driving Fatalities in America,
2007,” progress is being made to reduce DWI (Driving While Intoxicated) incidents across the
country. In 2007, 41,059 people died on our nation’s highways, a reduction of 1,649 or 3.9%,
from the previous year. Alcohol was involved in 37% of these motor vehicle crashes.

Alcohol impaired driving facilities accounted for 32% of all fatal crashes, down almost 3.7% from 13,491 in 2006 to 12,998 in 2007. This represents an overall decline in both traffic fatalities and alcohol impaired driving fatalities for the second consecutive year.

Overall, 32 states had decreases in the number of alcohol-impaired driving fatalities in 2007. The state of South Dakota ranked #1 with a decrease of 33.8%. Missouri came in tenth with a drop of 12.4% in alcohol-impaired driving fatalities.

“Although we’re making steady progress in reducing the number of alcohol-impaired driving
fatalities with our intense law enforcement efforts to get drunk drivers off the road, we need to
keep the pressure on to avoid falling in the trap of complacency,” said Wolf. “There is still a
need to crack down on alcohol-impaired drivers in order to keep our roads safe. The same
message is valid, ‘if you drink and drive, you lose.’”

The justification for continuing the crack down on alcohol-impaired drivers is cited in The
Century Council’s study, which reveals that “the impact of the hardcore drunk driver has not
changed.” This dangerous segment of the driving population is often composed of repeat
offenders with one or more drunk driving arrests who show no signs of changing their behavior.
Despite license suspensions, jail time, treatment and education efforts, many of them still break
the law by getting behind the wheel drunk. They account for a disproportionate share of the
alcohol-impaired driving fatalities on our nation’s highways.

The Hazelwood Police Department will continue to conduct DWI sobriety checkpoints
throughout the summer. Checkpoints are scheduled for July, August and September to help the
department maintain its constant vigilance against the problem of drinking and driving.
For more information, contact Sgt. Timothy Burger at (314) 513-5228.

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